Books Read Update
It's been a while...
Anathem Neil Stephenson
Pirate Sun Karl Schroeder
The Quiet War Paul McAuley
Night Sessions Ken MacLeod
Half a Crown Jo Walton
Mind Over Ship David Marusek
Black Man Richard Morgan
House of Suns Al Reynolds
Very nice far-future hard SF with timescales in the millions of years. Could have been written for me, but the Al is an astronomer. Recommended.
The H-Bomb Girl Stephen Baxter
Alternate history and time travel in Cuban Missile Crisis Liverpool, with the Beatles lurking in the background. Written as YA but with adult depth. Arguably the best thing SB has written. Definitely recommended.
This is Not a Game Walter Jon Williams
WJW relaunches his career for the second time thanks to publisher hassles with a near-future cyberplot that Stross would be proud of. Hopefully WJW is now back on his feet as this was really good!
Palimpsest Catherynne M Valente
Interesting novel about a sexually transmitted city (to use the author's own description). Definitely not my usual thing, and I found the writing at times to be over-rich. I know there are people who would love it, and while it didn't fully work for me I could certainly appreciate it.
Winterstrike Liz Williams
I wanted to like this more than I did, but the plot seemed to be driven too much by revealed powers of the characters that we didn't have any hints of beforehand. Specifically the demothea seemed so powerful they should never have been defeated in the first place. I guess I'm not understanding exactly what Liz is driving at with this book.
Wireless Charles Stross
Excellent new short story collection from Stross, including old favorites, like A Colder War and a wonderful new take on the time police in Palimpsest. Hmmm - where have I heard that title before...?
Astropolis Sean Williams
Interesting far-future space opera that didn't entirely work for me. You don't have journey times that last 10000 years and then arrive in the nick of time to save one major character, meet up with another in the right place and save a third from prison. There's good potential here but he didn't quite work out some of the implications, unlike Reynolds. this is the first of a trilogy but I think I'll give the others a miss.
Matter Iain M Banks
Another Culture doorstop dealing with a very unusual Big Dumb Object. The story stars pretty slowly and the courtly language of the 'fantasy world' characters got on my nerves a bit, but the pace inexorably quickens to a huge and mostly unexpected world cracking finale.
Anathem Neil Stephenson
Pirate Sun Karl Schroeder
The Quiet War Paul McAuley
Night Sessions Ken MacLeod
Half a Crown Jo Walton
Mind Over Ship David Marusek
Black Man Richard Morgan
House of Suns Al Reynolds
Very nice far-future hard SF with timescales in the millions of years. Could have been written for me, but the Al is an astronomer. Recommended.
The H-Bomb Girl Stephen Baxter
Alternate history and time travel in Cuban Missile Crisis Liverpool, with the Beatles lurking in the background. Written as YA but with adult depth. Arguably the best thing SB has written. Definitely recommended.
This is Not a Game Walter Jon Williams
WJW relaunches his career for the second time thanks to publisher hassles with a near-future cyberplot that Stross would be proud of. Hopefully WJW is now back on his feet as this was really good!
Palimpsest Catherynne M Valente
Interesting novel about a sexually transmitted city (to use the author's own description). Definitely not my usual thing, and I found the writing at times to be over-rich. I know there are people who would love it, and while it didn't fully work for me I could certainly appreciate it.
Winterstrike Liz Williams
I wanted to like this more than I did, but the plot seemed to be driven too much by revealed powers of the characters that we didn't have any hints of beforehand. Specifically the demothea seemed so powerful they should never have been defeated in the first place. I guess I'm not understanding exactly what Liz is driving at with this book.
Wireless Charles Stross
Excellent new short story collection from Stross, including old favorites, like A Colder War and a wonderful new take on the time police in Palimpsest. Hmmm - where have I heard that title before...?
Astropolis Sean Williams
Interesting far-future space opera that didn't entirely work for me. You don't have journey times that last 10000 years and then arrive in the nick of time to save one major character, meet up with another in the right place and save a third from prison. There's good potential here but he didn't quite work out some of the implications, unlike Reynolds. this is the first of a trilogy but I think I'll give the others a miss.
Matter Iain M Banks
Another Culture doorstop dealing with a very unusual Big Dumb Object. The story stars pretty slowly and the courtly language of the 'fantasy world' characters got on my nerves a bit, but the pace inexorably quickens to a huge and mostly unexpected world cracking finale.